Painting skirting boards and doors

[stealthninjamum]

Hi mumsnetters

I am about to paint the wood on my landing. It’s made up of yellowing gloss painted skirting boards and door frames and white untreated doors.

The smell of gloss paint always makes me feel ill so I was thinking of using a water based paint (someone has told me satinwood takes more knocks than eggshell although it’s not a particularly high traffic area.)

Bearing in mind the gloss areas are oil based do I need to treat or undercoat them before adding a water based paint?

Also do the doors need any kind of undercoat? I’d like the doors, frames and skirting boards to all be the same white.

One other thing, I’m not very good at painting am am worried about making the doors patchy so I would love to know which paints you have found are easy to apply and look good.

Thank you.

I have switched to water based satin, and use a small cutting in brush, and a mini roller. Makes it much easier!

It's very difficult to paint over gloss surfaces, even more so with water based paints. Have you given the glossed areas a good sanding to key them? If not, it's likely you'll find the water based coat just sheets off, or when it is dry it will simply flake off as soon as it's touched.

Thanks for your comments. I haven’t yet sanded the wooden areas as I was hoping someone would recommend a magic product that meant it wasn’t necessary!

In all seriousness I’m doing a final coat of emulsion on the walls so didn’t want to get dust on my lovely clean walls so I’m hoping to start next week.

How sanded does it need to be? Is it just a little bit of rubbing or do I need to sand down til I can see the wood underneath? I do have an electric sander but assumed that would be too heavy.

Presumably I won’t need to sand the doors as they are I painted white and have a texture anyway?

Sorry that meant to say the doors are unpainted / untreated.

Get a new green scouring sponge rather than sand paper, all you need to do is create a 'key' for the paint to stick to. You might want to think about sugar soaping the skirting too to remove residues.
Buy a decent cutting brush and it will make life easier

Depends on how thick and glossy the paint is really. Sometimes there are three or four coats of gloss if previous residents have been lazy and just kept slapping more and more on.

You'll need to sand it to the point that the 'gloss' is removed, i.e., it's not shiny any more. Shouldn't need to take it back to the wood, but the more of the gloss you remove the better the finish should be.

You shouldn't need to sand the doors if they have a matt finish, although a wash/wipe down is a good idea.

Don't worry about dust on the walls. Provided the emulsion is dry, any dust should just come straight off with a brush, duster, and vacuum cleaner. You can give them a very light wipe with a slightly damp cloth if required, but don't use a wet cloth, or scrub, because you'll just lift the emulsion. Remember to give the sanded skirtings a dry wipe and remove dust from them before you start painting them too.

Second what others have said about Satinwood paint instead of gloss. Much more forgiving, and it doesn't reek to anything like the extent of gloss, although you'll likely still have to use some sort of white spirit to clean it out of your brushes properly. Eggshell is normally water based so cleans up like an emulsion, but it's not as hardy as satin, gets chipped more easily, and personally I much prefer the sheen of the satin paints, but that's entirely at your discretion.

Thank you everyone. I already have a couple of cutting brushes, mini rollers sandpaper and green scourers so will use them.

And thanks xdownwiththissortofthingx I suspect this is the first time anyone’s painted over the gloss as the house is only about 20 years old and I’ve been here for 12 of those.

I think I’ll go to wickes and see if I can get a tester pot of satinwood to see if it gives me a headache. The headache gloss used to give me would be debilitating, and as a single mum I can’t afford to be ill now.

There is a new type of primer out there that you can use on gloss instead of sanding! There was thread I read yesterday in AIBU where people raved about it.

@RandomMess

There is a new type of primer out there that you can use on gloss instead of sanding! There was thread I read yesterday in AIBU where people raved about it.

www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/zinsser/primer-sealers/bulls-eye-1-2-3-water-base-primer

Miraculous stuff. Doesn’t smell terrible but can’t guarantee it wouldn’t give you a headache if you’re susceptible.

That’s interesting, I’ll look on that thread, thank you. I have a very similar product for painting on varnished banisters that I’ve never used and I’m now wondering if it would work for my landing. I tend to buy things (paint brushes / sandpaper / paint) and then procrastinate for years but I really will finish the job this time.